June 8–17 (21–80), 1909

Speech on the Question of the Tasks of the Bolsheviks in the
Party, June 11 (24)

I think it unnecessary to reply for the hundredth and thousandth time to Comrade
Maximov on the question at issue i. e., to repeat that in breaking away from us
he is creating a faction of caricature Bolsheviks or godly otzovists. All this
has already been said, printed, chewed over and emphasised in
Proletary. And I only say: speak out, say in print what you
have been saying here within four walls— and then, and only then, shall we get
an ideological struggle instead of the unseemly bickering that has been going on
here for more than three days. Say in print that we are “neo–Bolsheviks”,
“neo–Proletary–ists’? “in the new Iskra sense”, i. e.,
virtually, Mensheviks, that we “have made two steps back”, that we “are
destroying the most precious heritage of the Russian
revolution—Bolshevism”. Say these things, which I have taken down from your
speech, in print, and we shall show the public yet once more that you
do answer to the type of a caricature Bolshevik. Say in print that
we—I quote your words again—"will die a political death as prisoners of
Plekhanov in the event of anew upsurge”, that we “will win in the event of a
protracted period of reaction”, say this in print, and we shall, for
the benefit of the Party, elucidate once more the difference between Bolshevism
and “godly otzovism”. But since you refuse (in spite of our direct challenges,
beginning from August 1908, when you were formally requested at a
meeting of the editorial board to come forward with a pamphlet, to express your
views in a
pamphlet), since you refuse to fight openly, but continue your
intrigue within the Party, we must get an open statement from you
by directly removing you from our section (not from the Party but
from our section of it), removing you for the sake of an ideological
struggle which will teach the Party a great deal.

First published in 1934 in the book Minutes of the Conference of the Extended Editorial Board of “Proletary”